The Electric Leaf’s True Believers Won’t Leave Well Enough Alone

[n2doc]

By BRADLEY BERMAN
Published: October 14, 2011

WITHIN weeks of when Nissan first began delivering the Leaf to buyers last December, do-it-yourselfers were looking for ways to make the new electric car — an engineering marvel from one of the world’s leading automakers — even better.

Among those who applied their 21st-century engineering skills to tinkering pursuits that date to the dawn of automobiles was Gary Giddings, 69, a retired engineer and a passionate supporter of electric vehicles.

“At this point in my life, my goal is to spend whatever time I have trying to help E.V.’s become successful,” Mr. Giddings said. He is using his Ph.D. in electrical engineering, earned at the University of California, Berkeley in the free-speech 1960s, to correct some of the Leaf’s shortcomings and to squeeze more performance out of it.

Mr. Giddings and a dozen or so Leaf-driving eco-enthusiasts quickly focused on a glitch that annoys many Leaf owners: a battery-charge gauge that is notoriously untrustworthy. This dashboard readout can mislead drivers into believing that the battery pack is about to run out of juice when in fact there are plenty of miles left in the electricity tank.

“We read the Leaf’s program, decode it, find out what it’s doing to see if there’s bugs in it, and see if it should be doing it better,” he said

more
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/automobiles/nissan-leafs-true-believers-wont-leave-well-enough-alone.html

[Warpy]

1. Backyard tinkerers are likely the ones who are going to perfect the technology

especially when the new generation of batteries comes on line and especially if the carbon nanotube batteries pan out the way early testing suggests they will.

Eventually the changeover will happen and people who still drive "stinkpots" will be looked down at on the roads the way they are in harbors.

I loved my electric moped. I imagine electric cars have the same feel.

[exboyfil]

2. Only thing we need now is a clean way to economically produce electricty

for this car.

[Kolesar]

3. Photovoltaics! eom

[wtmusic]

10. For $900 you can get a solar panel option for the Leaf

although don't expect it to help you drive anywhere.

If you left the car in the bright sun all day long, it would generate enough energy to power the car's radio for about two hours. The story of solar, in a nutshell.

[txlibdem]

14. Solar panels on your roof can indeed provide enough electricity for your Leaf

[Nederland]

16. How much?

Enough to drive you to the end of your driveway?

[wtmusic]

17. If you live on a hill. nt

[txlibdem]

19. The Leaf takes 225 to 350 watt-hours to drive one mile

Watt hours. NOT kilo Watt hours such as you see on your electric bill. One kiloWatt hour will allow the Leaf to drive between 2.85 to 4 miles.

So ONE 230 watt solar panel placed almost anywhere in the USA will move the Leaf up to 4 miles per day.

[Nederland]

24. Thanks

I guess that also means that you can't drive your Leaf during the day, huh?

Unless you mount the solar panel to the roof, and add some positioning equipment to ensure it is always pointing south...

[txlibdem]

25. I know you're being obstinant for some reason but I'll answer your question anyway

Most solar installations are grid-tied. The solar panels put kilowatt hours onto the grid (and you get paid) during the day, and when you get home later you tell the electric car what time to start charging and it pulls the kilowatt hours back off the grid at that time.

Many parts of the country have a cheaper rate for the time during which your vehicle is charging. And during peak times when your solar panels are making energy and selling it to the grid the rate paid is higher. So you may not even have to match the number of kilowatt hours 1:1.

[Warpy]

4. My guess is that the eventual solution might be bacteria

[formercia]

5. The Bacteria do get us all in the end.

The ultimate predator.

[Warpy]

7. Some also generate electrical fields

when exposed to light and nutrients.

Others have been tricked into making things like human insulin.

Bacteria might end up being the most useful things on the planet.

[formercia]

8. I was just trying to be funny

If it wasn't for Bacteria, people couldn't accuse me of being full of shit.

[BlackSlax]

11. Vertical axis wind turbine

Do you think it's possible to have a vertical axis wind turbine partially charge up one of these cars over night???

[txlibdem]

12. Even powered by 100% coal, an electric car like the Leaf is already cleaner than a gas or diesel car

This has been proven by several studies and groups. It's on the interwebs... try the google.

Only the 2016 emissions standards will make a gas car cleaner than an electric car running off of 100% coal power. And, by the way, there is no state in the country that uses 100% coal, not even Texas!

Some other posters have stated that a car that gets 60 mpg might produce fewer emissions but I haven't looked into the pollution aspect of those cars... since they are so few in number. Does anyone have the CO2, NOX, SOX, Toluene, and particulate emissions figures for the various 60 mpg cars out there?

[madokie]

20. Is there even 60 mpg autos out there?

A friend years ago used to swear that his ford festiva got about that kind of mileage but I never was able to verify that.

[txlibdem]

21. A lot of Prius drivers say they get that mileage

And in Europe, some diesel models do (but they would be beat by the Leaf due to their emissions).

And technically, one could say that the Chevy Volt would if you only drive 60 or 70 miles before recharging the battery. I've always said the Volt is a great car. The fully electric cars are just better IMO because they get rid of all that heavy and expensive internal combustion junk.

[TheWraith]

23. You can tweak a Prius to that level by modding it.

Turning it into a plug-in hybrid, in other words. Or possibly by "hypermileing" with one.

[Ready4Change]

6. Hope they are good.

My first thought is that the factory dashboard gauge intentionally indicates low charge early in order to protect the batteries from deep discharging, which is damaging to long battery life. By getting more miles out of a battery pack they may cause those packs to fail earlier, perhaps costing them more money in the long run due to having to replace the batteries earlier.

I could be wrong. Time will tell.

[wtmusic]

9. There are actually two gauges

One shows current state-of-charge (essentially volts, although no numbers are provided), and the other one attempts to calculate how many miles of range you have left based on your driving since you last charged.

If you leave home with a full charge and hop on a freeway onramp, the mileage-remaining gauge drops like a rock - you can literally lose a mile every few seconds. When I first saw it I panicked, but it's not accurate, and not that useful. The state-of-charge meter tells the truth.

As far as deep discharging, the car automatically shuts down before that can happen. At around ten miles a little "turtle" light comes on and the car goes into maximum-economy mode - very slow, time to find a charger ASAP.

If you turtle-drive the car too far it shuts down completely.

[txlibdem]

13. Turtle light

That's the crawl home mode and is meant to protect the battery. If you bypass that and actually bring the battery close to zero charge it will shorten the life of the entire battery pack.

The GPS on the Leaf has a screen that will show you the nearest charging station compatible with the Leaf so you can take a few minutes, get a coffee or a soda (whatever your preference) and wait however long it'll take to get enough charge to get you home.

PS, after 3 months of owning the Leaf you will never worry about range again because you will be used to it and will know how to adjust your driving based on how much battery you have left. The first batch of electric cars are not for speed demons and jack-rabbit start'ers and wanna-be Nascar racers. That crowd will have to wait for the next generation of batteries - due out in 2015 most likely.

[wtmusic]

15. They claim the car shuts down before damage occurs

but I've never tested it. :)

I can confirm from experience that range anxiety is no longer an issue, but also that public recharging,except for workplace chargers, doesn't happen (you plan ahead so it doesn't have to happen).

As far as jack-rabbit starts, the Leaf has the best pickup of any car I've owned.

[txlibdem]

18. Yes but the article linked to in the OP states that they bypass that

Or that's how I read it anyway.

[wtmusic]

22. I see what you're saying now.

My impression is that Nissan wants to play it safe - there are still a lot of unknowns in regards to Li-Ion battery life under different conditions.

Thousands of warranty claims for destroyed batteries is a lot more newsworthy than lower-than-expected range.

[txlibdem]

26. Yes, and that is why the Volt has double the battery capacity that it lets you use

You only get to use around 8 kWh with the Volt but it has a 16 kWh battery pack.

I think that's the same kind of thing.